I'm new to BITOG and to all of this high involvement user input...but even at my age I'm still curious and so I've lurked and now joined to enter the 'game'....
Here's my story...enjoy...
Last month I got a real deal of car...not by choice but as a result of my 14yr old Altima being rear-ended and totaled, just 5k shy of its turning all those 99,999 a 2nd time....a sad day...
...but aside from my own physical shock (belt and head restraint worked!) and anger (the rear-ender high-tailed it into the unknown), I dreaded the search for its replacement...because it had to be a stick and finding one under the pressure to replace a wreck..
This was my 2nd Altima. I got it after letting the 1st, a 94-stick, go to a salesman who bought it while getting its oil changed (it's always about oil here right!?!) and I spotted the 99 with 120K fewer miles...).....both were 5-speed sticks (13 of my 15 sets of wheels were sticks) and replacing it with another stick wasn't going to be easy....so I knew I wasn't going to be picky....
...and there, at my very 1st stop shopping...where I bought the 2nd Alti...at the once-Nissan now-Toyota dealer...was the 05 Camry LE i4 J-vin 5-speed stick with 97.5k miles...a Camry stick!...I couldn't believe it.
You just don't expect a typical Florida Camry owner to be thrashing through gears...nor would you expect a gear thrasher to look to buy a CAMRY!
...but hey...that's just the car I want...a stick shift gently cared for....
A creampuff...smelled as sweet as the clutch was smooth...the dealer had replaced it after taking it in trade...replaced disk plates, and both slaves and accumulator and fluid...the whole unit..and it showed...it shifted like new and rode down the road tight as a drum....nary a squeek....all the fluids look fresh and show no leaking...
I understand dealers sell retail, but I buy wholesale...at least that has always been my buying philosophy...and it's worked on all my dealer-car purchases...
The dealer had 3 prices on it (Cars.com/ebay/and on the windshield), $800-1800 less than KBB $10k retail....so I knew they were flexible even though they had taken it in on trade a couple of weeks earlier...
Keeping to my buying strategy, I offered trade-in value for an 05 camry in "very good" nik, $6k...$4k under KBB retail...I expect the dealer paid the previous owner less than TiV (a lot less) when this much work needed to be done on the car...
They countered with TiV + $500 that I said I would accept (as a new clutch system was surely worth that...that and the new battery, new wipers, cabin air filter, alignment and new tires all of which showed up on the dealer's pre-sale workorder...) if they replaced the windshield that was heavily wiper-scratched (it's free to them as that's the law in Florida)...after a bit of give 'n go they said they would...and I did...
...driving it home only one week after the wreck...wow did I feel relieved...
1st thing I did was get the glass tinted...big difference in temp...and looks...
Next was removing the chrome tatoos from the rear end...nude looks great too...
Only a few other items needed attention...the front passenger door echoed like rain on a tin roof every time it slammed...the other doors shut with a solid thud...not that door, and it drove me crazy...so I had the inside of the outer shell sound-muted with sound-absorbing padding that had unaccounably been overlooked.
I'm still looking for 16" rims to get me more and better tread on the road...don't want/need bigger than 16s for my driving style...
The only concern I have shows up on the car-fax report that shows OCIs of 8/13/15/12k with unkown oil after the 48k warranty period...the engine is quiet and smooth with ample torque to pull away from 1k rpm with no lugging, no clicking or clanging...
...no whining from the engine, the tranny or me...still....
I'm here not so much worried as just to offer my take on how to deal with the "unknown"...which after this long tale brings me to the nuts and bolts of BITOG...
I'm planning on running the engine for 4.5k and, (assuming no burn-off or leaking...after 1.5k there's none yet), I'll drain a quart of the Toyo dealer's bulk 5-30 dino and send the sample to Blackstone...I'll refill the engine with a quart of 5-30 synthetic....
When the UOA comes back I'll have some idea what's going on inside the engine...if all is "okay" @ 5k I would expect to continue running dino since I change oil at 5K/2x a year
...But...if the report shows excessive wear that's when I'll have to decide what oil to use in that 2nd oil change...
And THEN won't you all have a time offering advice...and I look forward to it...
Meanwhile I'm enjoying all your devotion and committment to your cars...it give me high hopes you'll all be real helpful in getting Kitcam to that 2nd 199,999 turn-over
I hope all this has been a useful and an enjoyable read...
I've enjoyed yours....
Here's my story...enjoy...
Last month I got a real deal of car...not by choice but as a result of my 14yr old Altima being rear-ended and totaled, just 5k shy of its turning all those 99,999 a 2nd time....a sad day...
...but aside from my own physical shock (belt and head restraint worked!) and anger (the rear-ender high-tailed it into the unknown), I dreaded the search for its replacement...because it had to be a stick and finding one under the pressure to replace a wreck..
This was my 2nd Altima. I got it after letting the 1st, a 94-stick, go to a salesman who bought it while getting its oil changed (it's always about oil here right!?!) and I spotted the 99 with 120K fewer miles...).....both were 5-speed sticks (13 of my 15 sets of wheels were sticks) and replacing it with another stick wasn't going to be easy....so I knew I wasn't going to be picky....
...and there, at my very 1st stop shopping...where I bought the 2nd Alti...at the once-Nissan now-Toyota dealer...was the 05 Camry LE i4 J-vin 5-speed stick with 97.5k miles...a Camry stick!...I couldn't believe it.
You just don't expect a typical Florida Camry owner to be thrashing through gears...nor would you expect a gear thrasher to look to buy a CAMRY!
...but hey...that's just the car I want...a stick shift gently cared for....
A creampuff...smelled as sweet as the clutch was smooth...the dealer had replaced it after taking it in trade...replaced disk plates, and both slaves and accumulator and fluid...the whole unit..and it showed...it shifted like new and rode down the road tight as a drum....nary a squeek....all the fluids look fresh and show no leaking...
I understand dealers sell retail, but I buy wholesale...at least that has always been my buying philosophy...and it's worked on all my dealer-car purchases...
The dealer had 3 prices on it (Cars.com/ebay/and on the windshield), $800-1800 less than KBB $10k retail....so I knew they were flexible even though they had taken it in on trade a couple of weeks earlier...
Keeping to my buying strategy, I offered trade-in value for an 05 camry in "very good" nik, $6k...$4k under KBB retail...I expect the dealer paid the previous owner less than TiV (a lot less) when this much work needed to be done on the car...
They countered with TiV + $500 that I said I would accept (as a new clutch system was surely worth that...that and the new battery, new wipers, cabin air filter, alignment and new tires all of which showed up on the dealer's pre-sale workorder...) if they replaced the windshield that was heavily wiper-scratched (it's free to them as that's the law in Florida)...after a bit of give 'n go they said they would...and I did...
...driving it home only one week after the wreck...wow did I feel relieved...
1st thing I did was get the glass tinted...big difference in temp...and looks...
Next was removing the chrome tatoos from the rear end...nude looks great too...
Only a few other items needed attention...the front passenger door echoed like rain on a tin roof every time it slammed...the other doors shut with a solid thud...not that door, and it drove me crazy...so I had the inside of the outer shell sound-muted with sound-absorbing padding that had unaccounably been overlooked.
I'm still looking for 16" rims to get me more and better tread on the road...don't want/need bigger than 16s for my driving style...
The only concern I have shows up on the car-fax report that shows OCIs of 8/13/15/12k with unkown oil after the 48k warranty period...the engine is quiet and smooth with ample torque to pull away from 1k rpm with no lugging, no clicking or clanging...
...no whining from the engine, the tranny or me...still....
I'm here not so much worried as just to offer my take on how to deal with the "unknown"...which after this long tale brings me to the nuts and bolts of BITOG...
I'm planning on running the engine for 4.5k and, (assuming no burn-off or leaking...after 1.5k there's none yet), I'll drain a quart of the Toyo dealer's bulk 5-30 dino and send the sample to Blackstone...I'll refill the engine with a quart of 5-30 synthetic....
When the UOA comes back I'll have some idea what's going on inside the engine...if all is "okay" @ 5k I would expect to continue running dino since I change oil at 5K/2x a year
...But...if the report shows excessive wear that's when I'll have to decide what oil to use in that 2nd oil change...
And THEN won't you all have a time offering advice...and I look forward to it...
Meanwhile I'm enjoying all your devotion and committment to your cars...it give me high hopes you'll all be real helpful in getting Kitcam to that 2nd 199,999 turn-over
I hope all this has been a useful and an enjoyable read...
I've enjoyed yours....
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